Malema vs Terre'Blanche: A breeding ground for radicalism

It is with great interest that I have been following the careers of Eugene Terre’Blanche and Julius Malema. In some ways, both of them remind me of the bad things that we have tried to put behind us in this country.

They both remind me of children who, in their frustration to get their points across, shout at each other louder and louder, with both not hearing what the other has to say.

And when they are not able to get their points across, they resort to calling each other names.

According to the Sunday Times, Terre’Blanche said at an AWB meeting last week: “They are the lawless people, the members of the government of the ANC … people like Malema who are provoking a revolution against the white people.”

Malema is reported to have said in response that Terre’Blanche “does not deserve to be among us. That one deserves to rot in jail. Even his horse at some point rejected him”.

I have been trying to look beyond what has been reported in the media about Malema’s statements, to try and get a sense of what he really means. Sometimes, I can see what he means but the way he puts it across only serves to alienate a large chunk of the South African population.

I have also tried to understand what Terre’Blanche is trying to say and I must admit I find it more difficult to make sense of what he is saying.

But ultimately, both of them are making more and more noise and, in the process, getting hotter and hotter under their respective collars.

This is the best breeding ground for radicalism, when you argue like this without listening to each other. Can we even imagine what South Africa would have been like if the apartheid government had listened to Nelson Mandela and his comrades instead of throwing them into jail?

Their oppression of the ANC led to the ANC taking up arms against them, leading to significant losses of life on both sides. If only they had decided to talk to each other instead of each one trying to prove a point, things might have been different.

I would like to put Malema and Terre’Blanche in a room and get them to talk to each other. I would ask Terre’Blanche why he dislikes blacks so much and I would ask Malema why he always feels that black people are victims.

Surely not everything that gets done to a black person is because s/he is black.

So Jackie Selebi is not being prosecuted because he is black. He is being prosecuted because there is evidence to suggest that he might have been corrupt.

Malema’s use of the race card in defence of Selebi has the danger of painting all black people with the same brush.

In the same way, Terre’Blanche trying to fire up whites to “resist” the ANC government is not serving anyone’s interest but a small group of misguided people who hope to bring back the past. They need to accept that the past is behind us and we need to find ways in which we can live together rather than fight each other.

I just wish that we could reach a point in this country when we realise that there are good black people as well as bad black people. In the same way, there are good white people and bad white people. But not all black people are good or bad, and not all white people are good or bad.

As long as we have people like Malema and Terre’Blanche, there will always be room for extremists to exploit. This is the best breeding ground for radicalism.